Chapter 34
Ivy
I stand in front of my closet with Nell, looking at the handful of clothes I brought with me from Seattle.
It isn’t much, especially when it comes to dressing up, and the stuff Julian said he’d ship back has yet to arrive.
He probably sent the text to get an emotional response out of me and has no intention of sending my things, especially after I didn’t take the bait.
Whatever. I’m so tired of him taking up space in my head. Especially now, when everything in my life is starting to come together.
“I want to look casual, but nice, you know?” I say to Nell, who nods like she understands my conundrum. “I haven’t seen these people in a long time and want to make a good impression.”
Micah’s cousin Nick is home on leave from a tour of duty overseas, so the entire Hutton clan is getting together to celebrate.
Micah declared it the perfect opportunity to introduce Nell to his family, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing them all again, right until I opened my closet.
I gnaw on my lip as I flip through the options.
“That dress always looks pretty on you. The white one. With the floof and ruffles.” Nell taps the sundress I wore the day I met Micah at The Pact. I’d been so nervous to see him, so sure he’d be angry and difficult. Since then, he’s proven himself to be Julian’s opposite in every way.
“I can’t believe you suggested a dress.” I pull it out and hold it against my body, looking at my reflection in the mirror.
I’ve put on a little weight since I’ve been in the Keys.
Julian would forbid me to wear white until I didn’t “look like I spackled the dress on,” but Micah seems to like me a little curvier.
Nell leans against the wall, crossing her arms and shrugging just like her father. “Just because I don’t like dresses doesn’t mean you can’t like dresses.”
“Wise advice from someone who just lost her first tooth,” I say, smiling through the mirror.
“Daddy said that it’s good for people to be different because it would get boring if everyone in the whole wide world was the same.”
I pause, shocked to hear her call Micah Daddy and heartbroken he wasn’t around when she did. “He’s full of good advice, isn’t he?”
“And bad words.” Nell giggles. “He’s full to the brim with those.”
We get dressed, me in my white dress and Nell in a pair of shorts, Converse, and her favorite oversized superhero hoodie.
I do our hair—curls for me and a high ponytail for her—and am painting my nails with Nell curled up on the bed reading a comic book when Micah knocks at the door.
He takes one look at me and his eyes light up.
“Wow,” he whispers, before turning to Nell. “I’m sorry to barge in, but I found these at the store, and I know you’re not into girly stuff, but I thought you might be willing to make an exception. Whadaya say, LG? Pretty cool, right?” He holds out a package with hope lifting one side of his mouth.
I instantly go on alert as Nell frowns. Julian tried to force her into feminine choices. He brought home dresses and bows and pink everything, then made a stink when she didn’t act excited.
That hasn’t been Micah’s way, but my guard is up all the same.
“Mom likes girly stuff,” Nell says, looking disappointed and trying to diffuse the situation by shifting the attention to me. I hate that she’s only six and already has tactics like that in her arsenal.
“I don’t know. These might not be girly enough for Mom.” Micah holds out a pack of nail stickers and I grimace. Nell has never been big on those, no matter the color.
Nell dutifully studies the package and I kid you not, her entire face lights up. “Oh woah! These are so cool!” She leaps off the bed and into his arms. “Thank you, Daddy! Thank you!”
“Anything for my girl,” he replies, his voice thick as he holds her tight.
“Is anyone gonna let me see?” I ask. “I need to know what kind of miracle nail stickers have you so excited.”
Nell wiggles out of Micah’s embrace and thrusts the package into my hands. “They’re comic book ones. Look!”
Each sticker has a different comic book word on them.
“Kapow!” for her thumb. “Wham!” for her pinky.
They’re bright and fun and so perfectly Nell, I hate myself a little for listening to my father when it came to Micah.
She’s come to life since she’s met him. She’s happier since she met him. More confident. More relaxed.
Just like me.
For as long as I can remember, Hutton family gatherings were held at Micah’s Aunt Cat and Uncle Lucas’s house and today is no different. Pulling into their driveway is a dose of nostalgia that stabs me in the heart.
“It hasn’t changed a bit,” I say as I peer out the window at the stately two-story home with the splattering of palms in front and the ocean behind.
The first floor is an enclosed outdoor living area with a bar, a pool, hot tub, and boat dock.
The two bedrooms, kitchen, and living area were built on the second floor to minimize damage from flooding.
Micah takes the car out of gear and kills the engine. “The house is the same. The people are too, though we’re all bigger, older.” He bobbles his head. “And there’s more of us.”
“More? There were already so many of you!”
“There’s no such thing as too many Huttons.” Micah turns in his seat to look at Nell. “You ready to learn the meaning of the word ‘big?’”
She eyes the rows of cars filling the drive and spilling onto the street, then turns her attention to the house in front of us.
She’s accustomed to expensive homes. Between Dad’s money and Julian’s, we’ve always had nice things, but our family gatherings never included more than five or six people.
She’s in for an experience tonight. I only hope she handles it well and Micah hasn’t built it up too much.
While there might be a lot of people, there won’t be that many kids…
“I’m so ready,” Nell says, wiggling in her seat.
We file out of the car. Micah wraps one arm around my shoulder and takes Nell’s hand with the other.
The palms bend in the breeze and the ocean sweeps and rolls behind the house, glimmering in the setting sun.
Soft music wafts our way, twining with laughter and conversation as we approach.
We step inside and almost run face first into a couple engaged in a heated discussion in the foyer.
“Nator Tot!” Micah exclaims. “Just the man I wanted to see.”
Nathan Hutton used to be a scrawny redhead with a pale face and freckles. He grew up and filled out while I was in Seattle. Instead of a vibrant red, his hair darkened to a deep mahogany and bright green eyes sparkle in a strong face with a kind smile.
“You promised you’d stop calling me that,” he says, thumping Micah on the back, then turning to me.
“My God. Ivy Cole. You look wonderful. We’re all so glad you’re back.
” He turns his attention to Nell, crouching down to greet her on her level.
“I remember you! Miss Penelope Michaela Cole, lover of strawberry ice cream, right?”
“At your service!” She hits him with finger guns and a huge smile. “And you’re the stranger without danger.”
Nathan introduces us to his girlfriend, a sour woman named Blossom wearing a candy pink dress, her blonde hair styled and sprayed within an inch of its life.
She looks at me the way the girls at school did before Dad enrolled me online, a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, a scan of my face, my body, my hair, my daughter, the curl of her lip a clear indication I don’t measure up.
“It’s so good to meet you,” she exclaims in a voice that says it most certainly isn’t, then grabs Nathan’s arm and hangs from him like an anchor. “Nathan and I were in the middle of a discussion though, so if you don’t mind, we’ll catch up with you later?”
Or never, says her practiced grin.
Nathan frowns, then sighs and hits Micah with an apologetic smile. “Blossom has two girls a little older than Nell. Maybe they can play?”
Blossom wrinkles her nose. “I think my girls might be a little mature for her.” She turns her back to us, not so subtly signaling our part in the conversation has ended.
Micah leads us deeper into the house, glances over his shoulder to make sure we’re out of earshot, then bends down to whisper, “Her girls are anything but mature. They might be the meanest, nastiest, most entitled human beings on the planet.”
“Surely they’re not that bad,” I begin, but a shriek interrupts me, followed by frantic splashing and a wail of indignation.
A little girl around ten or eleven stands at the edge of the pool, her hands on her hips, her perfectly curled hair spiraling down her back as she stares haughtily at her sister, drenched and struggling in the water with a voluminous dress floating around her.
“I’m gonna kill you!” yells the sister in the pool, spitting water and losing any sympathy her predicament earned her. “You stupid, jealous, bratty idiot!”
“Jealous? Like I have a reason to be jealous of you!”
“Cathlynn! Carabell!” Blossom appears out of nowhere, takes a few steps toward the pool, then gestures for Nathan to solve the problem.
“I stand corrected,” I say to Micah while Nell stares, eyes wide.
“The girly girls are always the scariest,” she whispers, shaking her head
Before long, we’re surrounded by Huttons, most of the faces familiar, though kissed with age and experience. Micah’s mom takes Nell by the hand and leads her over to the treats, leaving me to catch up with his cousins.
“So, this is the Ivy Cole,” says Angela’s husband, Garrett. He’s dark and imposing, though he obviously loves Angel very much. Which is easy to do. She’s as sweet as sunshine and just as bright.
“Here I am.” I laugh nervously, wondering what’s been said about me that even this new addition knows my name before we’ve been introduced.
Micah’s brother, Levi, wraps me in a hug and their cousin, Nick, looks like a movie star in his dress blues, broad shoulders, and dark, cropped hair.
“There he is. The whole reason for this shindig,” says Micah, thumping Nick on the back. “The man who goes on so many Marine intelligence ops that the family throws a party every time he comes home.”
A woman I don’t know joins the group. She has dark, curly hair and one of those faces you instantly like.
“Hi!” she says brightly, extending her hand.
“I’m Garrett’s sister, Charlie. I’d like to think I’m the reason for the party, since my visit just happens to coincide with Nick’s, but it’s probably safe to say it’s a coincidence.
” She glances toward Nick, blushing and dropping her gaze as they make accidental eye contact.
“That is so gonna be a thing,” Micah whispers to me as the conversation moves on. “Charlie, and Nick. They eye-bang each other whenever they’re both in town at the same time. Which happens a lot more than you’d think.”
Micah keeps his arm around me the entire night, as if he’s afraid to let me go.
We talk to his parents, his aunts and uncles, and so many cousins I only half-remember from my childhood, plus a few I don’t.
When his mom finally brings Nell back around, my daughter is grinning from ear to ear, her eyes bright, her energy high.
“I love having a big family,” she says. “There’s so many people to talk to and everyone’s so nice and says I look just like my dad.
And I’m sorry mama but I’ve had a lot of cookies but Grandma Hope and Aunt Cat said it was okay because it’s a party and that’s what parties are for.
And everyone loves my nails.” She holds out her hands, wiggling her fingers, then frowns.
“Except that girl who’s all wet. She said they were the stupidest things she ever saw but I don’t care because I like them and that’s what matters, right?
I tooked the big breath Daddy told me about and didn’t say she looked like a soggy sandwich even though I really wanted to.
” She barely pauses for an answer before, “Oh! Grandpa Eli said I could spend the night at their house tonight if that’s okay with you.
I told him about getting sup-spended and he said he has lots of funny stories about my dad when he was a kid. ”
I put a hand on her shoulder. “Breathe, Nell Bell.”
“It’s pretty exciting here, isn’t it Lightning Girl?” Micah looks happy just to see her happy. Love shines in his eyes without the cloud of judgment I’m used to seeing from Julian.
“It sure is, Captain Thunder!”
And with that, she takes off, running towards Micah’s parents, stopping after a few steps to turn around and run right back. “Can I spend the night? Please? Can I? Can I? Can I?”
A quick glance at Micah has him shrugging his shoulders and me nodding my head and she’s off again, whooping her excitement as she races to his parents to share the news.
“She is perfect.” Charlie laughs. “What I wouldn’t do with all that energy!”
“She is you,” Garrett says to his sister. “And I remember exactly what you did with all that energy. It was…intense.”
“No…” She shakes her head. “You were intense. I was fun.”
“Nell’s really sweet,” says Angela and Levi nods.
“I couldn’t ask for a better surprise niece,” he says, bumping his shoulder against Micah’s.
Julian would have called Nell’s conversation an ‘outburst.’ He would have shushed her and pushed her away and then finally made her stand in the corner until she could remember her manners.
By comparison, the Huttons embrace her. I know my daughter’s a lot.
She thinks fast. She talks fast. She’s not like other girls her age and instead of trying to force her into some predetermined mold of what she’s ‘supposed’ to be, these people are celebrating the parts that make her wonderful and forgiving what makes her different.
It feels right. Like the world could take a lesson from this family. Judge less. Accept more.
“You having a nice time?” Micah nuzzles my ear.
“The best time. I forgot how awesome your family is.”
“Seems like Nell’s enjoying herself.”
“I’d say. Your parents are going to have a hard time getting her to go to sleep.”
“That’s okay. I don’t think we’ll be getting much sleep either. That dress looks amazing on you, but it’s begging to find its way to my bedroom floor.”